WHAT IF MARVEL MASTERWORKED THEIR GOLD AND SILVER AGE CRIME AND WAR COMICS?

Welcome to the What If? Library page that joins together the two comic genres which depict the brutal heart that beats within the chest of man - when man chooses wrong over right, and when he must rise to kill an enemy combatant with his rifle, bayonet or bare hands! It's Crime and War, Masterworks fans! And one day, you may hold in your hands a book culled from the list you see to your right!

Marvel trotted out a good variety of pulpy crime books in the 40s and early 50s, and with names like Crime Can't Win, Crime Must Lose!, and Lawbreakers Always Lose!, you could be assured that the police would eventually get their man (with lots of bullets flying and blood along the way!)

For violent comics drama of a global nature, we can turn to the many war titles that Timely/Atlas produced across the 40s and 50s. If battle is your appetite, Marvel can serve up a dish to satisfy! Look at all those comics with "battle" in the title! You got yer Battle Action, Battlefield, Battlefront, and Battleground, plus Young Men on the Battlefield and Marines in Battle! And when you're ready for something a little more down to earth, there's just plain old Battle! These war anthologies served up a heavy dose of combat realism in stories written and drawn by creators who were actually there!

On top of comics dedicated to the Marines and Navy branches, the Atlas Era also saw a small but potent stable of identifiable war hero comic lines, led by Combat Casey and Combat Kelly, and including other, more obscure, men of war like Devil-Dog Dugan, Kent Blake of the Secret Service, and Sgt. Barney Barker!

It's highly unlikely we'll see any of these comics lines get the Masterworks treatment any time soon - if ever! But as usual, it's nice to muse about such things, and at the very least, this page can serve as a broad overview of what material is out there for these two genres.

-- by Gormuu

PLEASE NOTE: Many creator credits found within the maps may not be entirely accurate. Creator credits will be updated as more accurate information comes in. All maps are preliminary and subject to change.

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Website design by Doug Roberts and John Thomas. All images on this site are copyright of Marvel Comics. This site is for reference purposes and promotion of the Masterworks line of books as well as Marvel Comics and their properties.